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Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Eyes On The Prize: Getting That Dream Career

Everybody’s looking for that dream career but very few people seem to get it. Is that because there just isn’t room for everybody to have the perfect job? Or is it because people just don’t know how to get the perfect job? The latter seems more likely. We like to play the safe game and stick to what we already know. But changing course in your life to find that perfect career doesn’t have to be quite as scary if you have a structured plan for doing so. Here’s some help with creating that plan.

Figure out your future path.

The reason so many people to struggle to follow their dream career is that they’ve no idea what their dream career might be. They know which jobs they don’t want to do (and that might be from experience working in a certain industry or simply from reading a job description) but they don’t know which job they’d actually enjoy. Is there such a thing as a job you’d enjoy? Yes. You just need to find something which appeals to your interests and your skillset. It’s about finding the right combination of something that’s personally-gratifying and intellectually-stimulating. Ask yourself what you’d do if you had the right education or spare time on a Saturday. That’s a good start to helping you figure out your future career path. Remove all mental obstacles that tell you certain careers are off-bounds.

Think about your existing skills and your potential to learn new skills. It’s never too late to improve your education. You might want to look into a masters of engineering management online course if you’re of an engineering mindset but you’ve always wanted to further your business knowledge. You might want to look into a teaching course if you’ve always been passionate about a certain subject and the possibility of passing on that knowledge to others. The point is that there are many different courses available in the modern age for people of all backgrounds and all skill levels. Whether you’re new to the working world or you’ve been in a different career for 20 years, you shouldn’t ever feel excluded from a certain path. At the end of the day, all that matters is you have the determination necessary to get the qualifications and experience for that specific career. Age doesn’t factor into the equation. It just has to be something in which you’re interested, above all else.

Get experience.

Ah, experience. There’s the buzzword that everybody hates. Perhaps you’ve known your dream career for a long time. That isn’t the problem. The problem might be that you can’t find an entry point into the industry because you don’t have the “experience” necessary for a certain job role. Qualifications aren’t always enough. They’re important, of course, but most employers want qualifications and experience in this day and age because there are too many potential candidates for job vacancies. But how can you get experience without an employer giving you a chance? It’s a never-ending cycle. That’s why you might want to look into voluntary work to boost your CV. You could do an unpaid internship in your field of interest to build up your experience and prove to future employers that you have spent some time in the industry. It’s all about finding that entry point.